I disagree. The level of skill and technique and the speed of the game now is utterly superior to anything from the 'good old days'. With the exception of Brazil's 1970 team, a lot of the stuff played in said footballing utopia was positively agrarian. Sure there were the outstanding individuals who could play on Turf Moor's swamp and still look like geniuses, but the level of today's players is surely much higher?
Of course diving, cheating, whinging is going to turn people off. So too are the vast amounts of money these idiots are being paid. However, in terms of skill you have to say today's game is better than the rose-tinted bygone era.